Overhead view of Manchester in GTA London 1961.
Manchester is a city featured in the Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 mission pack for Grand Theft Auto: London 1969. The city is clearly based on the real-life British city of Manchester, but is only available as a multiplayer map, existing alongside London, the primary setting of London 1961 and London 1969.
Description
Much like its real-life counterpart, 1960s Manchester is a heavily industrialised city, although its design is less inherent to the real-life city than London. Because Manchester reuses textures from the London map, the landmarks depicted in the game bear little resemblance to their real-life counterparts in comparison to London.
The city's main feature is its canal network, which includes one river to the southwest, a dry canal that runs from the river to the eastern edge of the map, and a Y-shaped waterway that runs from north to south, complete with adjoining dockyards, warehouse and cargo holding areas. These characteristics mimic Manchester's shipping canals and docklands; the southwestern river may also be based on the River Irwell.
The city may be further divided into several areas:
- The southwest is occupied by low-density housing estates to the west, distinguished by its two-storey homes and large greenspace; the landmass between the river and the canal features built up urban space, including recreations of the Manchester Town Hall and Albert Square.
- The southeast seems to be based on the districts of Trafford Park and Old Trafford. It is occupied by a series of warehouses, shipping crates, a complex of buildings to the east, and a football stadium.
- The northeast consists of a mixture of low-density housing estates, moderately developed urban spaces, abandoned buildings, a large storage bay, and castle walls seemingly inspired by Mamucium.
- The peninsula at the centre of the northern half of the map, as expected, contains warehouses and shipping crates.
- The northwest is heavily developed with large numbers of commercial and residential buildings.
In addition, the map features dual-track railway lines that runs from a train shed at the western end to the edge of the map to the east and another train shed to the northwest, all while running along at-grade and elevated surfaces. As it is implied to be railway lines for industrial use, no trains can be found along them.
Due to its use as a multiplayer map, Manchester lacks basic facilities in comparison to London, such as working hospitals and police stations (although the city has two of each) or export docks. While exploring Manchester map, there are no named areas displayed on the HUD.
Trivia
- When Jeremy Robard rants about Konstantinos Smith's lifestyle on VCPR on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, he wants him to "listen to some music other than people groaning on and on for half an hour about how much it rains in Manchester". This is possibly a reference to the opening line of The Smiths song "William, It Was Really Nothing".
- In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Maccer mentions Manchester and neighbouring Salford (his birthplace), and speaks with a Mancunian accent.
- Paul Martin, the DJ at Bahama Mamas and host of Vladivostok FM in The Ballad of Gay Tony, appears to be from Manchester. He speaks with a Mancunian accent and uses phrases such as 'mad for it', which was popularised in the city during the Madchester era of the late 1980s-early 1990s.
